Microsoft's Email Encryption Behavior May Violate HIPAA, New Paubox Report Warns
Microsoft 365's email encryption behavior could be putting healthcare organizations at serious risk of noncompliance
Share
In a series of controlled TLS experiments, Paubox researchers found that Microsoft 365 may transmit messages in cleartext when encryption fails, without bouncing the message, alerting the sender, or logging any evidence of the failure. This occurred when messages were sent to recipient servers that did not support modern TLS protocols.
The messages in question contained simulated PHI and were sent in accordance with typical 'force TLS' configurations that many IT leaders believe are sufficient for HIPAA compliance.
'Our team expected the message to bounce,' said Hoala Greevy, CEO of Paubox. 'Instead, it went through unencrypted—and unless you knew where to look in the headers, you'd have no idea.'
Microsoft's fallback behavior directly contradicts the expectations outlined in HIPAA's Security Rule (45 CFR §164.312(e)(1)), which requires technical safeguards to ensure PHI is protected in transit. If encryption fails, and there is no way to detect or prove it, healthcare organizations may be unknowingly transmitting PHI without the protections HIPAA requires.
According to the report:
Microsoft 365 will attempt TLS fallback—and if that fails, deliver in cleartext
No warning or notification is provided to the sender
Encryption failures are not recorded in any accessible audit trail
This behavior is the default, not a misconfiguration
Paubox also calls out broader issues with relying on force TLS settings in cloud platforms, calling the practice a 'false sense of security that cannot be audited.'
Healthcare IT and compliance leaders are encouraged to review the findings and test their own environments.
The full report, How Microsoft and Google Put PHI at Risk, is available here: https://hubs.la/Q03v1MCR0
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Yahoo
If You Invested $1000 in Microsoft a Decade Ago, This is How Much It'd Be Worth Now
How much a stock's price changes over time is a significant driver for most investors. Not only can price performance impact your portfolio, but it can help you compare investment results across sectors and industries as well. FOMO, or the fear of missing out, also plays a role in investing, particularly with tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks. What if you'd invested in Microsoft (MSFT) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to MSFT for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today? With that in mind, let's take a look at Microsoft's main business drivers. Microsoft Corporation is one of the largest broad-based technology providers in the world. The company dominates the PC software market with more than 73% of the market share for desktop operating company's Microsoft 365 application suite is one of the most popular productivity software globally. It is also one of the prominent public cloud providers that can deliver a wide variety of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solutions at WA-based Microsoft's products include operating systems, cross-device productivity applications, server applications, business solution applications, desktop and server management tools, software development tools and video games. Its software solutions and hardware devices are playing an important role in developing the company designs and sells PCs, tablets, gaming and entertainment consoles, other intelligent devices, and related accessories. Through Azure, it offers cloud-based solutions that provide customers with software, services, platforms and reported revenues of $245.1 billion in fiscal 2024. The company reports operations under three segments: Productivity & Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud and More Personal & Business Processes accounted for 31.7% of fiscal 2024 revenues. The segment offers productivity and collaboration tools and services including Office 365, Dynamics business solutions, Teams, Relationship Sales solution, Power Platform and Cloud, which include Azure cloud services, contributed to 42.9% of fiscal 2024 closed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard on October 13, 2023 for $75.4 billion. Activision Blizzard has been integrated as a sibling division to Xbox Game Studios and ZeniMax Media. More Personal Computing represented 25.3% of fiscal 2024 revenues. The segment comprises mainly the Windows, Gaming (Xbox hardware and Xbox software and services), Devices (Surface, PC accessories, and other intelligent devices) and Search (Bing and Microsoft Advertising) businesses. While anyone can invest, building a lucrative investment portfolio takes research, patience, and a little bit of risk. If you had invested in Microsoft ten years ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today. According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in July 2015 would be worth $11,060.59, or a gain of 1,006.06%, as of July 3, 2025, and this return excludes dividends but includes price increases. Compare this to the S&P 500's rally of 199.86% and gold's return of 176.71% over the same time frame. Analysts are forecasting more upside for MSFT too. Microsoft capitalizes on AI business momentum and Copilot adoption alongside accelerating Azure cloud infrastructure expansion. Strong Office 365 Commercial demand has been propeling Productivity and Business Processes revenue growth notably. ARPU increases through E5 and M365 Copilot uptake across key segments. Intelligent Cloud revenues advance through Azure AI development and AI Copilot busines growth. Strategic execution has been enhancing non-AI services through enterprise customer growth and operational scale improvements. Xbox content and services benefit from robust performance across third-party and first-party content offerings. We expect that fiscal 2025 net sales will increase 13.7% compared to fiscal 2024. However, elevated operating expenses and Azure investments amid intensifying cloud competition remain concerns for the stakeholders. The stock is up 5.87% over the past four weeks, and no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 3 higher, for fiscal 2025. The consensus estimate has moved up as well. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
This Dan Ives-Backed ETF Could Be the Smartest Way to Play the AI Revolution
The Dan Ives AI Revolution ETF limits the influence of mega-cap tech stocks, such as Nvidia and Microsoft. It still explores the exciting AI opportunity with 30 hand-picked stocks in that market. This nearly equal-weighted ETF could appeal to investors seeking more diversification in the AI sector. 10 stocks we like better than Wedbush Series Trust - Dan Ives Wedbush Ai Revolution ETF › The artificial intelligence (AI) revolution is shaking Wall Street to its very foundations. The "Magnificent Seven" group of market-defining AI stocks all rank among the 12 highest-valued securities on the market today. Together, this group accounts for 32.3% of the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) index's total score, and 61.9% of the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index. These are the market darlings of this era, all trading at lofty valuations and perhaps headed toward a painful price correction someday soon. What if you're not comfortable giving so much weight to a risky bunch of recent market beaters? Remember, past performance does not guarantee that future returns will be similar. Well-known analyst Dan Ives just launched a hand-vetted fund that provides targeted investments in the AI boom, but with lower influence from the handful of top-ranked giants. Let's see what's different about this exchange-traded fund (ETF), so you can decide whether it belongs in your portfolio. The Dan Ives Wedbush AI Revolution ETF (NYSEMKT: IVES) is technically an index fund, but the underlying index is a custom list that simply reflects the stock pick in Ives' top-30 AI stock-picking reports. It was launched just days before the related ETF. So the index formulation is just a technicality. The Wedbush analyst with a long research history and a penchant for colorful suits is really making these stock picks in a very direct sense. At the same time, the index structure adds some academic rigidity to the ETF. New additions to the index (and ETF) are given a cap-based weight between 1% and 4% of the total portfolio, no exceptions. The index is rebalanced four times a year, on the third Fridays of March, June, September, and December. The hard caps of at least 1% but no more than 4% are reapplied at each of these events, making sure that no single stock ever represents a huge slice of the Dan Ives ETF. The annual expense ratio is 0.75%, far above the leading S&P 500 index funds and comparable to many handpicked stock collections. On June 30, just 27 calendar days after the ETF's inception, the "Magnificent Seven" stocks added up to 32.6% of the Ives fund's value. That's actually a smidge higher than their combined slice of the S&P 500, but megacaps Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) hold significantly lighter weights in the Dan Ives portfolio. Nineteen of the 30 components ran into the 4% top-end weighting cap at the latest rebalancing, making alternatives such as IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) just as important to the ETF's value as any of the Magnificent Seven. No ETF can guarantee market-beating returns, and AI is a volatile field right now. I can't guarantee that Ives' selections will outperform the broader market in the long run, or that the nearly equal-weighted nature of this fund is a better idea than the market cap weightings seen in many other ETFs. But if you're looking for a lower-risk approach to the exciting but risky AI market, the Dan Ives AI Revolution ETF might hit the spot. Its careful rebalancing policy sets this fund apart from most of its rivals. Ives' decades of market analysis experience should be worth something, too. The fund is too young to do a deep dive into its market performance, but it's off to a strong start in its first month of operation. Only time will tell how this ETF will stack up in the long run, but its lower risk profile could be right for your portfolio. After all, it will hurt less to hold the Dan Ives ETF if a top stock like Nvidia or Microsoft takes a big tumble. As always, do your own research before you buy anything -- but if you want a smarter, more diversified way to play the AI revolution, this ETF might just fit the bill. Before you buy stock in Wedbush Series Trust - Dan Ives Wedbush Ai Revolution ETF, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Wedbush Series Trust - Dan Ives Wedbush Ai Revolution ETF wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $692,914!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $963,866!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,050% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 179% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 30, 2025 Anders Bylund has positions in International Business Machines and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, International Business Machines, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This Dan Ives-Backed ETF Could Be the Smartest Way to Play the AI Revolution was originally published by The Motley Fool
Business Wire
38 minutes ago
- Business Wire
Japan Delegation Concludes Visit to North Carolina to Explore Life Sciences Partnerships
ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A high-level Japanese delegation specializing in life sciences concluded a three-day visit to North Carolina (June 24–26), further strengthening ties between Japanese and U.S. leaders in the sector. Organized by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and co-organized by the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina (EDPNC), the Research Triangle Regional Partnership, Greater Winston-Salem, Inc., and the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, the visit included tours of key facilities within North Carolina's thriving life sciences ecosystem. The delegation commenced its visit with a meeting with Governor Josh Stein, followed by a tour of the North Carolina Plant Sciences Building at North Carolina State University and the Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC), where they explored academic–industry collaboration in workforce development. The group also visited Spark LS, a 109-acre advanced life science campus, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, and Astellas Gene Therapies. On the second day, the delegation visited the Innovation Quarter in Winston-Salem and toured the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) to gain insights into cutting-edge initiatives in regenerative medicine. Additional site visits included Winston Starts, Ricoh, Mercodia, and Charter Medical. The day concluded with a warm welcome from Mayor Allen Joines. On the final day, the delegation visited the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis and toured the North Carolina Food Innovation Lab. They also visited Coddle Creek Capital and the University of North Carolina Nutrition Research Institute. The visit concluded at The Pearl, Charlotte's emerging hub for healthcare innovation and scientific advancement. JETRO looks forward to deepening its collaboration with the State of North Carolina, building on the growing momentum between Japan and the region in advanced technology sectors.
